LONDON (AlertNet) Â? The UN Development Programme is planning within days to launch a cash-for-work program for Haitian earthquake survivors, aimed at getting basic survival funds into the hands of people able to help remove rubble from roads, reconstruct hospitals and carry out other work key to getting basic services functioning again, says Jordan Ryan.
"You want to get people working rather than looting," said Ryan, a UN Development Programme assistant secretary-general who oversees a team of experts rebuilding countries around the world affected by natural and man-made catastrophes.
Cash-for-work and food-for-work programmes have been used successfully in Liberia and in Haiti itself after the country was struck by a series of 2008 hurricanes, he said.
He spoke with AlertNet as the UNDP prepared to launch an appeal for $40 million in funding for the programme and other early recovery efforts in quake-devastated Haiti.
Q: Search and rescue and other immediate humanitarian efforts are obviously the focus in Haiti at the moment. At what stage does work on recovery and redevelopment start?
A: The idea is to embed what's termed 'early recovery' as early as possible. How do you make sure the capacity of national actors is strengthened? If recovery is going to be sustainable the national actors have to be engaged and involved from the outset.
As I'm sure the Haiti case will prove, you can promote a sense of hope and stability with programs like food for work and cash for work. There's lots of rubble on the streets and UNDP will try to get people employed to clean up the city, to start building back. We need to use labour intensive practices, put people to work, get some money in their pockets, have them rebuild schools where their children can have a safe environment, get the hospitals and clinics back up.
When people can see things getting cleaned up and people have the opportunity to get involved, it builds stability and a sense that things can get better. Right now there is desperation for so many who have lost so much and are worried about the future of their children and themselves.
Q: How soon do you see cash-for-work programmes getting underway and how big will they be?
A: We're looking at trying to engage a couple hundred thousand people quickly. That's the order of magnitude. We're looking to raise about $40 million, and maybe $35 million of that would go for early recovery, including food, rubble removal and so on. A large chunk of it would go would go to idea of cash for work.
Q: How effective do you think such a programme will be?
A: We have experience with this programme in Haiti in the aftermath of the 2008 hurricanes. Apparently it worked quite well. Some of the mechanisms for it exist, the protocols and approaches. (The programme employed nearly 100,000 people, many in Gonaives, the worst-damaged city, to clear debris and clean up the water system, UNDP officials said)
Q: How do you focus rebuilding efforts in a place where many state institutions never worked well before the disaster?
A: You always want to try to build on what exists. It is a very weak, fragile state. Working with national actors is the foundation you want to build on. Many of the ministries have been destroyed but we do now have reports that the U.N. is working closely with prime minister, getting his office up and running. And some ministers did survive the tragedy.
The first couple of days after this disaster, people have been in a desperate situation, looking for family members. But reports weÂ?re getting now are that a number of functional staff from the U.N., NGOs and other groups that will be valuable in pulling together the effort are now able to focus a bit more on helping out now that they have their own family situations sorted out.
Q: What are the biggest obstacles facing your work in Haiti?
A: Getting aid out from airport. The port is in bad shape. We have to look at distribution centres, getting word out to people that health, shelter, food, water are available and that help is there. There are shortages, including fuel shortages. There will be issues of coordination, something the U.N. will be working very closely with the government on, and issues with the military and police managing security. You want to get people working rather than looting.
In the longer term, the challenge will be to make sure capacity at the local level and at the national level is built up so the process of building back, the major reconstruction, can be done in a way that takes advantages of the devastation and builds back much more resilience, with better building codes. You want to make sure the new Port-au-Prince that emerges is strong and more resilient.
Q: Are there any lessons for Haiti from the post-war rebuilding experience in Liberia?
A: One of the lessons we learned in Liberia was to have much more joined-up approaches rather than individual agencies running around doing whatever they wanted to do. In Liberia the priority was road building. The World Bank had the money, UNDP had experience on the ground and could mobilize payments for Liberians to work, the government was involved so they had ownership and gave overall direction, and the U.N. mission had soldiers and engineers from places like Pakistan and China to help with the work. We hope the big actors will find ways of collaborating in Haiti.
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